Evidence of host switching: Sea lampreys disproportionately attack Chinook salmon when lake trout abundance is low in Lake Ontario

Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) is the presumed preferred host of the invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) in the Great Lakes, but little is understood about this preference outside of laboratory experiments. By preference we mean sea lamprey attacks on hosts are disproportionate to host relative abundance. The purpose of this study was to quantify host preference of sea lampreys in the field for the first time. We focused our analysis on...